Dallas Stars Blog

Notes and quotes from a 5-3 win against Anaheim

_ Stars blow a 3-0 lead and are tied 3-3 after two periods. However, they dominate the third, have a 16-9 edge in shots on goal, and they end up winning 5-3.

_ Dallas is now 19-12-1 and in first place in the Pacific Division. It is 9-3-1 when tied after two periods.

_ Anaheim falls to 9-19-5 and is just 2-10-4 on the road.

_ The Stars have won four of their last five games and six of their last nine. Dallas improves to 10-4-1 at home this season.

_ The Stars became the final NHL team to go on a 5-on-3 power play tonight. Dallas scored their first 5-on-3 PP goal of the year and also registered two PP goals for the first time in a game this season.

_ Brenden Morrow has registered seven points since returning from injury six games ago (4g, 3a). Morrow is currently on a three-game goal streak.

_ With the assist on the first Dallas goal, Steve Ott extended his point streak to three games (0g, 3a) and is now four points away from registering his 200th career NHL point.

_ Mike Ribeiro is currently on a four-game assist streak and has a point in seven of his last eight (2g, 7a). Ribeiro has earned points in five consecutive games against the Ducks (3g, 3a).

_ Loui Eriksson extended his point streak against the Ducks to eight games (5g, 6a) and currently has a three-game point streak overall (1g, 4a).

_ Alex Goligoski tallied his first goal since November 4 against the Colorado Avalanche.

_ Jamie Benn currently has a three-game point streak (1g, 3a).

_ Michael Ryder has scored goals in consecutive games and has a point in three of his last four games (2g, 2a).

_ Eric Nystrom leads the team with 11 even-strength goals and tied his career-high with 11 goals in a single season (set in the 2009-10 season with the Calgary Flames).

_ Anaheim’s Teemu Selanne scored a goal and an assist, giving him a league-high nine-game point streak (3g, 10a). He tied and then passed former Star Mike Modano (1,374 career points) tonight for 22nd on the NHL all-time scoring list with his 1,374th and 1,375th points.

And here are some quotes:

“Our message between the second and third was that we can’t do it with a strike of lightning. We have to do it together, and the guys did that over the last 20.”

_Stars coach Glen Gulutzan

“People say when you come back from the road, the first game’s like a hangover. We stuck with it, and we got the lead. They managed to tie it, but we had a great third and came out with two points, which is huge.”

_Stars winger Michael Ryder

“We gave them a few chances on the power play, and that kind of swung the momentum. We knew going into the third period if we could sustain some pressure in their end, things would go our way.”

_Stars goalie Richard Bachman

“We knew if we stuck to our game plan we could eventually wear them down, and that’s exactly what happened. We stuck to it, played our game, kept getting it in, and eventually wore them down and got our breaks.”

_Stars winger Eric Nystrom

“I thought we came out really good at the start of the game. Then, we started taking some penalties and they got the momentum going, scored a couple goals. I think overall, we did a good job but going against a team that has a lot of skilled players like them offensively, you can’t take too many of those penalties. That’s probably what cost us the game tonight.”

_ Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin

“There’s no margin of error because if we make a mistake, it’s in the back of our net right now. I think the first chance they had to score in the first period, they scored. And the first chance they had in the third period, they scored. When we make a mistake right now, everything is in our net.”

“We’re all part of the team. Whether it’s the coaches or everybody, we’ve got to take responsibility for this. We just have these breakdowns. We can look so good for short periods of time or even longer periods of time and then all of a sudden, we get out of the gameplan. I haven’t figure it out yet, but whether the focus is lost or we get too emotionally involved with something else…It’s like two different teams five different parts of the game.”